purposely adopted for the greater edification of the readers. As for instance, though the thirty second and thirty third chapters contain matters which intervened between the things related in the last chapter, and those which are recorded here, still it might be better that these two chapters, relating to the imprisonment of the prophet, should stand immediately next unto each other. Painful it is indeed to see how weakly the king gave way to the violence of his nobles, and after having greatly eased the condition of the imprisoned prophet, allowed him to be cast into a dungeon no less foul and perilous to his health and life than that in which he had been before confined. But profitable it is to reflect, how little trust can be put in the favour or protection of those, whose eminence in rank or power is apt to dazzle the minds of the beholders, and to make men blind to the duty and advantage of putting their trust in the Lord. Who but the allseeing Disposer of hearts could have raised up for Jeremiah at such a juncture the Ethiopian advocate and friend, or could have inclined the king to listen to an humble suit for mercy, when he had so lately yielded to the fierce demand for severity? Who but the almighty Ruler of events could give success to the kind exertions of this servant of the king, notwithstanding the malice and watchfulness of those to whom the same monarch had just before replied, "Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you?"

The account of the prophet's sinking in the mire, when let down into the dungeon, leads us to imagine it a sort of pit fenced round with a high wall, open to the rain, but almost inaccessible to the sun and air. Such were the prisons which the Jewish kings had learnt from their heathen neighbours to construct, as places of punishment for criminals. Such was the cruel manner of treating prisoners common in those times and countries. We need not therefore wonder, that imprisonment is not one of the means ordained under the law for the punishment of crime; though it was in use in Egypt for that purpose before the time when the law was revealed. See Gen. 39. 20. And we may be thankful that at length, under the Gospel, pains have been taken, at least in some Christian countries, to mitigate the horrors of a prisonhouse. That this has only lately been the case is much to the disgrace of the times that are past. That Christians during many ages were used to inflict on each other a kind of punishment, no less barbarous than that which is here mentioned, shews to how little profit they could have read these pages of the Old Testament, much less the precepts of brotherly affection which run throughout the volume of the Gospel. God be praised that in this as in many other matters we are fallen upon better times! God grant that both our national laws, and our personal conduct, may in all things be such as becomes the disciples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Zedekiah conferreth secretly with Jeremiah.

14 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.

15 Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me?

16 So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of BabyIon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house :

18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

19 And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. 20 But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me:

22 And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

23 So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

24 Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.

25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee:

26 Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there. 27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

28 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was

21 But if thou refuse to go forth, taken.

LECTURE 1246.

That the fearful and unbelieving are the same.

Though Jeremiah had been drawn up out of the dungeon, he was still confined "in the court of the prison," ver. 13, when Zedekiah thought fit to send for him privately, and say, "I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me." Strange that the king should suffer one whom he acknowledged for a prophet thus to remain in confinement at all; and even after this confidential conference to let him go back and linger in prison, "until the day that Jerusalem was taken!" How plainly does this treatment of the prophet, and all the king's language in their conference, prove the absence of that manly resolution, or rather that divine courage, which is indispensable to the effectual discharge of almost every other duty!

Jeremiah seems to have known, without need of being told, what it was that the king wished to enquire. And having been assured with an oath that he should not be put to death for speaking the truth, and having also expressed his doubts as to the king's hearkening to his counsel, he declared in the name of the Lord, that if Zedekiah would throw himself on the mercy of the besiegers, he might save his life, and preserve the city from being burnt; but that if he would not so surrender to mercy, both he and his city must perish. In one destitute of true courage we might naturally expect a readiness to surrender at discretion. But Zedekiah was afraid of the taunts of his own people, of those amongst them who had already gone over to the side of the Chaldeans. And though assured by the prophet that this fear was groundless, nay, that rather he should incur the more bitter scorn by the contrary course, yet would he not be persuaded to comply with this earnest exhortation, "Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord which I speak unto thee: so shall it be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live."

He was afraid of the Jews that had fallen to the Chaldeans; and he was afraid also of the princes who remained with him in Jerusalem. For he charged the prophet not to let them know of this conference, and even went so far as to suggest a method of evading their enquiries. It was not then by dint of courage that he braved things so much more terrible, the burning of Jerusalem, and his own capture by the enemy. It is no sign of fearlessness in the wicked that they run risk of displeasing God, and of enduring endless torments, rather than incur the ill will or the scorn of the world. It is not that they are without fear, but that they are without faith. They fear that which is the object of sense. Their fear of things temporal is so lively, that it overpowers their faint apprehension of things eternal. And thus with an inconsistency otherwise unaccountable, they who tremble before their frail fellow creatures, can live, and often die, with little or no fear of those terrible things, which their Maker has in store for the unbelieving.

Jerusalem is taken.

The treatment of Zedekiah and Jeremiah.

1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. 4 And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.

5 But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.

6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon. 8 And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

9 Then Nebuzar-adan the cap

tain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained. 10 But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying,

12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.

13 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon's princes;

14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

15 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,

16 Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.

17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the

hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.

18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the

sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

LECTURE 1247.

The equitable sentence which awaits all hereafter. The burden of Jeremiah's many threatening prophecies is now fulfilled. Jerusalem is taken. The city, which besides the strength of its defences, had long enjoyed the protection of Almighty God, is now given up to the arms of the Chaldeans, to be by them burnt to the ground. And in the midst of this public calamity, it is not too much for the power and providence of God to make the lot of each single person agree with the word of his prophecy, and with the execution of his righteous judgment. Zedekiah, though he flies, does not escape. He is overtaken, and suffers the most grievous punishments by the sentence of the victorious king of Babylon. Jeremiah, by the orders of the same monarch, has his safety and liberty provided for. While Ebed-melech, who, foreigner as he was, had released the prophet from the miry dungeon, into which his own countrymen had thrown him, now enjoys the benefit of the word of the Lord, which came to Jeremiah whilst yet shut up in the court of the prison, assuring the compassionate Ethiopian, that in the day of the overthrow of Jerusalem, his life should be mercifully spared because he had put his trust in the Lord.

But the prophecies of Jeremiah may be applied to a calamity of wider extent and of more general interest, than the destruction of Jerusalem. And when the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up, then also it will be found to be the case, that God can provide for the fulfilment of all that is written in his word, and for the allotment of an equitable sentence to every human being that has ever breathed. There are those who shut their ears against the tidings, that any such calamity is about to happen to the world. There are those who put their trust in the strength of its foundations, and in its wonderful extent, and in the proof which its beautiful construction presents of the favour which its Maker bears to it. But assuredly it will be burnt with fire. And assuredly they who now dwell therein in open rebellion against God, will then be overtaken, however swiftly they may flee, and will have to meet Him face to face with all their sins upon their heads. And no less certainly will those, who now prove their trust in the Lord, by suffering for his truth's sake, or aiding those who suffer for it, no less surely will they be protected in that day by his mighty hand, and established in security for ever.